


Dragon & the Bees

by General_Zargon



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bee Drones, Ben Wa Balls, Body Horror, Brainwashing, Breast Honey, Bulging Belly, Dehumanization, Eggpreg, F/M, Forced Lactation, Forced Orgasm, Grateful Sex, Healing Flames, Healing Magic, Human Beehive, Imprinting, Large Breasts, Larvae birth, Memory Loss, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Mind Rape, Minerva makes the first move, Other, Oviposition, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Queen Bee, Rescued, Seriously I felt dirty writing it, Temperature Play, Unbirth, Vaginal Gaping, Vaginal Sex, bee sex, clit torture, gratitude, held captive, o.O, restrained, this is filthy, why did i do this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-07-11 17:27:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19931788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/General_Zargon/pseuds/General_Zargon
Summary: Minerva accepts a quest to retrieve highly sought-after honey from magical bees, and to her horror soon finding out why the request said 'men only'.Almost a year later, Natsu rescues an unknown woman from a hive of monstrous bees.UNDER CONSTRUCTION





	Dragon & the Bees

**Author's Note:**

> So I was looking over some of my recent porn and thinking that there was no way I could write anything filthier than that...I really shouldn't have challenged myself like that. -_-; Please pay attention to the tags! I think I got everything that might be considered gross, but be warned, I really went all out on the squick factor in this one.
> 
> NOTE: DUE TO COMPUTER PROBLEMS, I'VE DECIDED TO POST THIS BEFORE ITS FINISHED SO I DON'T LOSE ALL THE WORK I PUT INTO IT. So, don't be surprised if one day you click on this and it's somehow doubled in size. Until then? Enjoy the filth. ;)

_Buzz buzz buzzzzzz-!_

The buzzing cut off approaching as the source of the noise, a bee as large as her palm, exploded in a splatter of guts that rained down on the forest floor. Minerva Orland grimaced in disgust, pointedly stepping around the mess as she walked in the direction the bee had come from. The request had sounded simple, just get a jar of honey from the elusive giant bees of Marigold Jungle, but now she was finding out first-hand why they were called 'elusive'. She'd hoped it would be as easy as going to a store and purchasing a jar for someone too lazy to do their own shopping but no, it wasn't. For some reason the bees couldn't be raised in captivity, so the only way to get the honey was to head into the Marigold Jungle and find a hive to collect it from. The honey was rich in nutrients and could be used in food, medicine, and cosmetics along with beneficial to increasing a wizard's powers, rendering it highly sought after, and the fact that it was only found in the wild ensured that the people buying it would pay top Jewels for it.

It wasn't like the insects were rare, she had run into almost a dozen of the giant bees already, but there was still no sign of the hive! Though she killed the lone bees, she also made an effort to backtrack their paths, scanning the trees and ground around her, looking for either a pale lump attached to bark or a large dirt mound filled with holes and finding neither, much to her frustration. With bees that large, surely the hive would be noticeable!

Marigold Jungle was densely packed with trees, walls of deep green occasionally broken by splashes of vivid color from the odd flower or fruit. Hot and humid like a rainforest, Minerva had found herself sweating barely ten minutes after setting foot under the canopy and severely regretting her choice of wardrobe. Her heels threatened to sink into the soft earth with every step she took and sweat caused her dress to cling even tighter, restricting her movements like an anaconda trying to crush its prey. It had barely been a day since she'd arrived and already she was sick and tired of it, hissing under her breath as she had to pull harder than usual to dislodge her stuck heel.

Pulling out the job request, she scanned it once more to make sure she hadn't missed anything that might point her in the direction of the hive she was looking for, ignoring the line specifying male wizards only, dismissing it as the employer being sexist. The reward money was enough that she could ignore that. Sighing, she concluded that no, she hadn't missed anything, once again putting away the paper. She had stopped in the village at the edge of the jungle to gather some last minute information, but aside from dozens of villagers warning her against entering the jungle she'd gotten nothing, not a hint of where to find the giant beehive she had to look for. None of them answered when she'd demanded to know why they were trying to stop her, so really she'd been irritated before the job had even officially begun.

By the time the third day ended she was deep in the forest and had seen neither hide nor hair of any kind of beehive.

Indulging in a frustrated scream as she killed two bees heading towards her, Minerva snarled, letting the bag containing the empty honey-jar drop to the ground as she took a break from searching. Gritting her teeth, she took a deep breath and then let it out in a feline hiss through her teeth; she was a member of Sabertooth, and for Sabertooth wizards failure was not an option. The rule of the strong had been engraved in her mind since she could remember, and it was a rule she lived by. She would _not_ be defeated just because she couldn't find the thing she was supposed to get!

She'd seen giant bees aplenty, but no hive! Where the _hell_ was it?!

Deciding to camp there for the night, sheltered from the elements by the giant tree at her back, she used a quick burst of magic to level out the ground so she wouldn't have to deal with a rock poking her in the middle of the night. She'd slept in worse places during her training, but that didn't mean she wanted to. Tired, cranky and just so ready for this mission to be over, Minerva settled down, using her arms as a pillow she drifted off to sleep.

She never noticed the softly glittering powder decorating her hair and bare shoulders, remnants of the bees she'd killed and, unfortunately for her, scent-markers announcing her location to all giant bees in the area...

* * *

Feeling something tickling at her wrists and ankles, buzzing noises caused Minerva to stir from her deep slumber, eyes snapping open to behold the sight of over a dozen giant bees hovering over her. She screamed, frantically scrambling back until she was touching the rough bark of the tree behind her, instinctively reaching for her magic and lashing out. Over half the bees exploded, hardly anything remaining of them, but the other half managed to evade. There was some kind of dust covering her arms, she noticed, and for some reason it filled her with dread. Breathing hard from the rude awakening, she became aware that there were far more bees than just the twelve she'd initially seen, the rest of them surrounding her and cutting off all escape routes.

Her eyes narrowed; it was too bad for them that she wasn't planning on running. Calling on her Territory magic, the buzzing sound of the bees was drowned out by countless miniature explosions obliterating their sources. Shamelessly venting her frustration on the source of her rage, she was so focused on the insects in front of her that she didn't sense the silent bee creeping down the trunk of the tree behind her until it was too late, a stinger the size of her pinkie driving into the meat of her shoulder. She screamed, ripping away the offending bug and crushing it into mushy pulp.

The moment of distraction cost her. The bees seized the opening, diving towards her and jabbing their stingers into every exposed bit of skin they could find, which there was no shortage of. She called up more of her magic, shoving the insects away and crushing all of them in a vicious explosion as she swayed, heat pulsing from every sting and black dots dancing across her eyes. The bee venom was moving fast, she registered, and though it wasn't lethal to the best of her knowledge she couldn't afford to pass out-!

Her vision went black.

* * *

A sharp, stabbing pain in her chest jolted Minerva awake, yanking her away from the peaceful darkness of slumber.

She sucked in a breath, but when she tried to scream all that emerged was a low whine. That was when she felt the thick, sticky substance at the corners of her mouth, keeping her lips just slightly open. Touching it with her tongue, all she tasted was wax. She blinked, eyes focusing on the scraps of blue-and-black cloth strewn on the ground in front of her, and when she looked down to be greeted by the sight of two huge bees burying their stingers straight into her nipples, panic surged. More whines escaped her as she instinctively trying to either jerk away or dislodge the bees, only to find that she couldn't move more than a twitch in any direction. That was when she became conscious of the position she was in; naked and held in a kneeling position with her arms and legs spread, wax covering her wrists and ankles to bind them to the tree and ground respectively.

Completely exposed, she felt a familiar feeling of helplessness rise inside her that she fought to beat back, tugging at her restraints only to find that the wax might as well have been steel for all the give in it. And when she reached for her magic, the drone of the bees flying around her increased in volume, somehow disrupting her spell. Sound magic, she thought, suddenly terrified as the pieces clicked into place. The buzzing tempo picked up, sounding excited as the bees in front of her parted to let an even bigger bee through, this one about the size of a large cantaloupe. This was the queen, she realized, seeing the subservient behavior of the drones, the ones on her breasts pulling away to join the jubilant churning of the swarm around her and leaving her nipples burning and leaking clear venom.

 _Giant bees used human women as their hives_ , she realized, far too late to save herself as she tried in vain to call on her magic as the queen bee got closer and closer to her exposed groin. The queen bee flew slowly, almost leisurely as if enjoying the panic of the soon-to-be hive, and for all Minerva knew it might have, all of her spells disrupted before they could fully form and frantic moans coming from her throat. The queen bee landed, antennae brushing the tender skin of her labia and clitoris, many legs working against the silky flesh as the queen reared up. Horror filled Minerva's eyes as it dawned on her what was going to happen, futilely trying to scream as the queen's head breached her body with a wet squelching sound.

No, no no no no-! Minerva screamed, both in her mind and in unrecognizable whines as the queen bee wriggled and squirmed in single-minded focus, squirming deeper into her cunt. Stretched obscenely wide with no preparation, she was in agony as the bee forced its way further and further inside. Its large abdomen was momentarily caught on her entrance, but the bee merely twisted and shoved until the thing the size of a ripe cantaloupe was inside and Minerva was doing her best to writhe in agony. Against her will, her body was reacting, her violated channel beginning to moisten, clear juices trickling out of her stretched hole, and she groaned in humiliation. Her head hanging down, she saw the large bump of the queen bee moving higher, disappearing into her abdomen with only a sharp burst of pain to let her know that the bee had ripped through her hymen.

The wizard felt the heavy lump of it in her womb, turning and wiggling and getting comfortable, and allowed herself to hope that maybe, just maybe, that was it. Her hope was ruthlessly crushed when she felt the vibrations starting, pulsing from her womb and making her eyes roll back as she moaned in unwanted pleasure. That brief spark of pleasure was all she got, the buzzing of the drones around her reaching a fever pitch before they all dove towards her stretched cunt. That was when the true pain started, bee after bee shoving its way inside her, three or more attempting to enter at the same time and nearly splitting her in half as they fought with each other to try and enter first.

A cacophony of buzzing and screeching and agonized moans filled the jungle around her. She felt them biting and stinging at her inner walls as they climbed up to where their queen made her nest, mind consumed by agony, moans turning into screams as her belly began to bulge, one of the drones stinging her G-spot and giving her the push she needed to open her lips wider and give voice to her agony. She screamed, shrieking like a banshee with all her heart as the insects tortured her, crawling and scratching and biting as they moved through her vagina and up to her womb. Incoherent, she howled; there was no way the entire swarm would fit inside her, right? She already looked nine-months pregnant, and there was still dozens left! Her abdomen would rip open if they tried to force themselves in!

She found herself hoping they would try, because surely death would be preferable to this.

Once again, her hopes were dashed - the remaining bees did go towards her groin, but not to her tortured cunt. No, they went to her _other_ hole. Her anal virginity was swiftly taken, the bees climbing into her bowels, buzzing joyfully. She screamed and kept on screaming until her voice disappeared, feeling the insects wriggling about in her womb and bowels and wanting to vomit in disgust even as the buzzing of many wings sent ripples of sick pleasure through her nerves. By the time the bugs were settled she was twice the size of someone about to give birth to healthy quintuplets, the skin of her grotesquely distended abdomen stretched so tight that she could see occasional flashes of black and yellow beneath it.

She didn't know what the bugs were doing, only feeling the squirming as the massive amount of bees began roiling, her torment reaching new heights. Everything was agony, her face was wet with tears that she made no effort to stop. Crying was weakness? Fuck that. She was being remade into a living beehive, she would cry whenever she fucking wanted to! She silently howled at her absent guildmaster. Locks of black hair clung to her skin through a combination of tears and sweat, her lips trembling as she stared blankly at her swollen breasts; the globes had nearly doubled in size since the initial stings and still felt like they were burning from the inside-out. Clear fluid flowed from the tips, oddly thick and sweet-smelling but a welcome distraction from the turmoil in her uterus.

It felt like a punch in the chest when she suddenly felt some of the bees move downwards, stretching her channel to its limits, an intense ball of pressure forming above her pelvis and staying there. That was too much for her to take, and she must have blacked out, because the next time Minerva awoke it was to find the bees had reapplied the wax on her mouth and the feeling of something stretching both her entrance and channel. Could the bees have put in wax walls so it wasn't such a tight fit? She felt a soft breeze against a spot so deep inside her it should have never felt air, so all signs pointed to 'yes'.

A small swarm of bees was flying away from her, at least half of what had gone inside her, so why was her belly still the same size...? _The wax_. The insects had put wax in her womb to keep her abdomen stretched to that size.

Feeling the storm of buzzing inside her, Minerva knew true despair that day.

* * *

Initially she had hoped that she would starve and not have to endure the torture for more than a week, but hadn't she learned by then that hope was futile? It took her some time to notice that she hadn't urinated or produced waste for an abnormal length of time, but eventually it dawned on her that the bees in her bowels and in her cunt must have been taking care of any bodily excretions. The worker bees would feed her small pellets of honey whenever she felt herself starting to grow weak, climbing into her mouth to shove the small balls down her throat if she refused to swallow. She had attempted a hunger strike only once; the punishment had been such that she never tried it again.

Gradually her resistance weakened, and finally she hung listlessly in her bonds, feeling the bees crawl in and crawl out, biting and stinging as they pleased and letting the liquid fire their venom produced wear away at her mind. The bugs worked at her breasts as well, plunging their stingers into her nipples and sawing in and out like they were fucking them. It hurt, it hurt _so much_ -! The action never failed to draw fresh tears from her eyes and high-pitched whines from her mouth. She was in so much pain, in fact, that she didn't even noticed how heavy her breasts felt until suddenly she noticed that the clear, sweet liquid dripping from her peaks had changed into a rich golden color.

Honey. Her breasts were dripping _honey_.

The moment the honey appeared, the bees went crazy, crawling over her chest and biting at her tender nipples, suckling at the honey. Whenever the flow slowed, they would drive in their stingers, their venom sending renewed bursts of pain through her body.

It was amazing what someone could get used to; she didn't know how long passed before the agony just...stopped mattering, becoming white noise as her mind retreated. Time passed in a blur as the bees raped every inch of her feminine organs; not even her ovaries were spared. Her days were reduced to a haze of distant pain and continuous buzzing accompanied by rare jolts of pleasure that had her moaning. Sometimes she even climaxed if the insects were feeling especially kind - her thoughts skipped a beat before latching onto that word. Kind? Where had that come from? Her apathetic fog lifted enough for her to realize that something was wrong, something more than her body being used as a beehive. Her thoughts felt sluggish, each one like a step through molasses, but then she became aware of a sense of pressure low in her womb where the queen nested.

The sensation was a new one, and something new made her wary. Frowning as best she could in her bound state, she focused on the feeling. It didn't feel like just one thing, instead it made her think of dozens of marbles rattling and shifting in a silk bag. She felt the outline of each object pressing against the walls of her womb, moaning in instinctive fear.

Something aside from the bees was inside her, something that didn't want her to realize that it was there, but why? Suddenly the pressure increased, moving at a snail's pace along her birth canal, and her heart sped up. The fog over her mind disappeared with the surge of adrenaline, and then she felt it: the squirming mass moving through her gaping tunnel, writhing and twisting like a massive ball of worms - fuck! The queen had laid eggs and those eggs hatched and now she was _giving birth_ to the larvae!

It was different from when the worker bees went in and out. The taut skin of her belly rippled, and the small cramps accompanying each slow movement of the mass were recognized as the contractions they were. She keened, trying to shake her head only to find that at some point the bees had attached her hair to the tree with wax, each small movement accompanied by a sharp tug on the strands. Once more she desperately reached for her magic, but this time something was different.

 _Her magic answered_.

The glow of her Territory appearing around her bound hands, a sense of elation filling her as she prepared to bust herself free. If she got to the village outside the jungle surely they could help her -

_:No. Stay still.:_

Her magic faltered as a foreign mind touched her, sounding like a chorus of tiny voices whispering in her ear. What was-? What was that? Shuddering, she called up her magic again as another contraction sent ripples through her inner muscles, only to freeze as those tiny voices sounded again, this time accompanied by feelings. Warm, placid feelings lapping at her mind, encouraging her to stay where she was, where she belonged, to be a warm home for the swarm, that everything was as it should be. She grit her teeth against the attack, realizing that the bees didn't just possess sound magic, they also possessed a mental power perfect for keeping any women they caught relaxed and pliant. That power weakened when the larvae were being born, which was why the newborn bugs used their own magic to keep their 'mothers' from breaking free.

She wouldn't give up! She would escape! She refused to be an incubator for these bugs!

This time she refused to let the whispers distract her, lashing out with her magic at the worker bees flying towards her. All the bees around her were destroyed, not even any lumps of meat remaining. She removed the wax binding her mouth open, screaming in fury as she continued slaughtering any drones that entered her sight. Her limbs had long since gone numb; she wouldn't make it far if she tried to run, but she had to _try_ -!

Ripping pain in her abdomen stopped her before she could free herself from the wax. She shrieked, bucking and trembling as she was subjected to a new level of agony, the first few larva slipping unnoticed from her open passage as she struggled to regain her breath under the onslaught. What was happening?! Her eyes bulged, rolling madly in panic like a horse about to bolt and oh, if only she could! All thoughts of her pride as a Sabertooth wizard had long since fled, vanishing the first time she'd passed out from the pain the bees caused. The only thing she thought about now was making the pain _stop_!

_:Pain will end if Hive stays, be a good Hive and no more pain.:_

The voices crooned seductively, more stray larva falling to the ground between her legs as she struggled against the urge to give in. Desperately trying to suck in breath, she looked down at her distended stomach fearfully, seeing a small lump form to one side before another round of pain had her howling, an identical lump forming on the other side. The queen bee! The queen was doing something! It was only after a heart-rending scream tore loose from her throat, her magic running wild and obliterating the drones trying to approach her groin that she realized what it was.

It was her ovaries, that damned _monster_ was doing something to her ovaries!

" _Ah, ah, aaaaaaaaaiiiiiiieeeeeee-!_ "

Convulsing as multiple stabbing pains racked her, the queen's torture accompanied by the honeyed whispers of the larvae's mind magic was too much. Minerva's mind, already weakened, broke beneath the pressure, the woman sobbing brokenly as she went limp in her bonds, the magical aura vanishing from her hands as the pressure at her entrance suddenly released. A clump of squirming larvae the size of a bowling ball fell to the ground between her legs, the remaining drones of the hive swooping in to carry them up to her breasts. The needle-sized white maggots wriggled around, crawling over her swollen orbs towards her leaking nipples, rearing back and diving towards the openings dripping honey...

One final, horrified shriek sounds in the jungle before abruptly falling silent.

* * *

_:Hive is ours. Belongs to the swarm, to the Queen.:_

....Yes. She belonged to the bees, to the Queen in her womb...

_:Hive is only ours. Hive belongs to no one but the swarm, protects only the swarm. Hive will remover Other's mark.:_

Yes, she moaned dreamily in agreement, blinking slowly as her mind surfaced from the pleasant fog it had been submerged in as the tempo of the buzzing in her ears changed. She regained enough awareness to hesitate at the Queen's order. The dark blue symbol on the side of her engorged abdomen meant something, something important to her...didn't it? She didn't know why, but she was reluctant to erase it even when the Queen relaxed the grip on her magic. Did she really have to get rid of it...?

_:Hive belongs only to swarm! Other's mark will be removed!:_

The bees didn't take kindly to her hesitation; buzzing violently and filling her belly will the cumulative pain of dozens of bites. One bee stung the tender spot in her channel that had been left exposed when the drones coated the remainder of her inner walls with wax, and she whimpered in distress. The drones continued to punish her, even the larva in her honey-ducts writhing in anger at her reluctance. One of the drones violently drove its stinger into her clit, a scream emerging unbidden at the sudden, unfamiliar pain. Whining, she pleaded for mercy, shuddering as her hesitation over parting with the mark was eroded by burst upon burst of pain. It was just a picture of some kind of long-toothed cat, so why was she trying so hard to keep it? It didn't make sense. Best get rid of it before the Queen grew angry.

A flicker of magic, and her last connection to who she had been before she was The Hive was gone, erased in a moment.

Minerva Orland was no more.

* * *

The Hive moaned as the swarm moved within her, inner walls rippling as languid pleasure flowed into her mind, the Queen's kindness a blessing The Hive didn't deserve. Golden honey dripped from The Hive's core as the newest batch of eggs hatched, the larva ball moving from nest to birthing channel. The newborns feasted on her honey, both as they were born and afterwards. Happiness, joy and pleasure were sent directly to The Hive's mind, caressing her shattered psyche and praising how good and obedient The Hive was. The Hive climaxed multiple times, never-ending tides of pleasure dragging her further and further into the Queen's thrall.

Once born, the larvae were transported to The Hive's breasts where they would burrow into the warmth of The Hive's honey-ducts and feast, growing big enough to leave the safety offered by the luscious mounds and be carried by the drones back down to the main entrance of The Hive, where they would metamorphose into drones to serve the Queen. One of them would be a Queen, the swarm said, waves of excitement rising in The Hive along with the swarm. In her time as The Hive, no Queens had been born, though several warriors had been, swiftly mating with the Queen to produce superior offspring. Even now the skin of The Hive's abdomen rippled as the warm buzzing of the swarm's joy sent vibrations through The Hive, waves of ecstasy leading her to come even more as the larvae, now the size of earthworms, exited her honey-ducts by the dozens.

Crooning in joy, strands of drool trickled from the corners of The Hive's mouth as waiting drones carried the grown larvae down to the entrance of The Hive. Rivers of honey flowed from it, a banquet welcoming the children home that the larvae and several workers eagerly indulged in. The larvae who would turn into a Queen ate the most, as was only right, and crawled inside The Hive, curling inside one of The Hive's ovaries as it began the maturing process. The Hive felt the fullness as the reproductive organ was stretched to accommodate the future Queen Bee.

Oh, _oooooh_! Lightning bolts of ecstasy shot through The Hive, the chosen ovary swelling as the new Queen grew, orgasm after orgasm drowning The Hive in pleasure. Mind blissfully blank, The Hive rocked and shuddered, massive belly swaying with the motion as she came. Pulses of pleasure had her moaning, staring unseeing into the jungle around her as she surrendered herself to the pure bliss brought about by the growth of the swarm.

* * *

Time had long since lost all meaning to The Hive; the workers brought pellets of honey whenever her lips grew dry or her stomach started aching with hunger, never at consistent times.

Sometimes, after dropping the pellets into her mouth, a worker bee would hover there, brandishing its stinger in a way that couldn't be described as anything but gloating. The Hive had learned what that meant, and she obligingly leaned her head forward, lapping at the conical weapon, the venom coating it making her lips and tongue tingle as she suckled. The Hive's mouth quickly grew numb, but she continued, performing a version of fellatio on the bee until it was finally satisfied and flew off. Then The Hive sat back and waited, and soon enough another bee would come up and present its stinger...

* * *

The Hive's belly felt oddly empty, half of the swarm having left with the newly-grown Queen to form another hive, and she whined sadly, gazing down at her honey-soaked tits. Idly, she wondered when the next batch of larvae would hatch. She had felt the churning in her uterus of the Queen mating with the remaining warriors, so it should be soon...So focused was she on the thought that it took her a moment to realize that something was wrong. Her eyes had long adjusted to the darkness of the portion of the jungle where the swarm made their home, so why did things suddenly seem...hazy? Like she was peering through fog, everything was blurry, and her nose burned with the scent of smoke.

Gradually, glimpses of flickering orange could be seen through the thick trees, and bolts of alarm slammed in The Hive's mind.

:Fire! Fire!:

The bees buzzed in her mind, thoughts consumed with alarm as the warriors and workers roiled inside her, stinging furiously as the Hive writhed in terror and agony. She remembered fire; an insidious element that brought destruction and reduced everything in its path to ashes. Her own fear of it mixed with that of the swarm, and she yanked futilely at the wax holding her in place for the first time since she had become the Hive.

Getting closer, the roaring flames beat back the darkness she was accustomed to. Blinking furiously against the reflexive tears welling in her eyes at the intruding light, she thought she saw a figure within the flames, the torrent of buzzing from the remainder of the swarm that had stayed with the Queen inside her lost beneath the furious roar of the fire.

She felt the heat from the approaching blaze licking at her bare flesh, embers drifting towards her as the wind shifted. Rearing back as best she could, unable to stop herself from cursing the wax binding her to the tree, she watched in terror as the fire crept closer. The sound of crackling flames reached her ears and sparked new levels of panic from both herself and the Queen.

The rest of the swarm was gone, turned to ashes by the beast of fire approaching, the figure she'd seen in the heart of the flames lifting a hand and incinerating the few remaining warriors. The figure grew more and more distinct, continuing to approach where the inferno itself stopped some distance away, burning lowly as though bowing to the man now standing in front of The Hive. Tall, muscular with pink hair and sharp teeth, these were the only impressions The Hive got before the man knelt down and placed his hand on her abdomen, right over her womb where the Queen hid.

Beautiful golden flames danced around his hand, sinking into her body with soft pulses of gentle heat. She moaned, eyes closing as her tense muscles relaxed, limp and pliant as the heat spread, a blissful smile on her face. The golden fire was concentrated on where the swarm lived, the beeswax inside her melting and flowing out her entrance like water. Cradled in warmth, The Hive felt at peace, her eyes closed as the feeling lulled her into a state of calmness and bliss greater than anything the swarm had given her, the feelings insulating her from the panic of the Queen. Not nearly so kind to the Queen as they were to The Hive, the insect monarch was singed and chased by the flames, left with no choice but to flee The Hive.

She opened her eyes in time to see her swollen belly deflating like a punctured balloon, a loose fold of skin the size of a large kite falling towards the ground with nothing to keep it drawn tight. The Hive felt it when the Queen left her; the bee's thick body pushing itself free of her closing slit and falling to the jungle floor with a wet plop. Covered in molten wax, the Queen couldn't fly, and though The Hive felt the Queen's alarm as the man reached down and grabbed the cantaloupe-sized bee, there was an odd detachment to the emotion. The Hive watched as the Queen was consumed by the flames the man called, these an angry red instead of comforting gold, and smiled.

When the man melted her bonds and picked her up, one arm supporting her shoulders and the other under her knees, The Hive didn't make a single noise of protest.

" _It's okay, you're safe now._ " A voice that brought to mind the image of a roaring bonfire reached her ears, safe and dangerous in equal measure, and she believed it.

* * *

"...Removed the remaining wax and honey, but it will take some time before she recovers."

Slowly stirring, The Hive blinked at the unfamiliar voice, the words taking a moment to register. Her arms and legs were tingling unpleasantly, a pins-and-needles sensation that had her twitching, only to discover that she was laying down on a soft surface and there was a roof over her head. There was no tree, no wax holding her, and it took a moment before she remembered the last thing that happened before she fell asleep. The man, the fire, her bonds melting and the Queen burning...Her mind skipped a beat, the surrealism of the situation leaving her reeling in confusion. There was no buzzing, no bees moving inside her, no foreign minds clouding her own, and for the first time since she became The Hive, she felt lost.

What was she supposed to do...?

"Hey, you awake in there?" A voice she'd heard only once before jolted her out of her thoughts, and she blinked, her eyes focusing on the face hovering above her and smiling down at her. Startled, she instinctively tried to sit up, only to find her arms refused to support her weight. She didn't have time to brace herself for the fall before a warm arm curled around her back, propping her up as that familiar voice said, "Whoa, easy there. You've been through a lot, so take your time. You want to sit up? Deep breath, now one...two...three." On three, the man helped her sit up, bracing her as the other person in the room, a kindly older man dressed in a white doctor's coat, hurried to pile pillows up behind her. The first major difference in her body that she noticed was her abdomen.

Formerly a grotesquely bulging mass, it was now smooth and flat, no sign of its previous state remaining. No loose flaps of skin, no pain in her reproductive organs from being stretched to their limits, nothing. Stunned, she glanced towards the doctor, unsure of how to ask the question burning in her mind. Luckily he seemed able to read it in her face, because he smiled kindly, "All of your organs have been restored to their natural state, including your skin," he spoke reassuringly.

"You sure she's gonna be okay, Doc?" The man, who had removed his arm from around her in favor of perching on a chair placed next to the bed, spoke, frowning uncertainly as he watched her poke cautiously at her belly, marveling at the change from the tight skin that looked poised to rip at the slightest additional stretch to _this_. Smooth, supple flesh caving beneath her fingers only to bounce back to normal the second they were removed.

Distracted as she was investigating the change in her abdominal area, she didn't fail to pay attention to what the two men were saying. Her mind was in a fragile state, the doctor informed her savior; the giant bees of Marigold Jungle possessed both sound and mind magic, and prolonged exposure would result in a brainwashed state that essentially wiped out the memories and personality until the unfortunate women were reduced to mindless dolls completely loyal to the insects, incapable of escape even when they had the opportunity. (That sounded right, she distantly noted, humming internally and remembering the swarm's tactics of punishment and reward.) If rescued soon enough there was the possibility of recovery but, the doctor confessed, he'd seen her pass through the village more than a year ago and the longest a woman had been held and still been able to recover some of their memories was five months.

For her, chances were slim to none that she'd remember anything. The Hive didn't care that much, for all the news caused her savior to furrow his brow unhappily, but it was interesting that the name the doctor said she used, Minerva, caused something to resonate within her, but it was a passing familiarity at best.

After the doctor sent her savior from the room citing doctor-patient confidentiality, the older man sat in the chair previously occupied by the pink-haired man. The doctor was apparently a healing mage and the one responsible for putting her body back to normal. His voice was strictly professional as he gave her a brisk summary of her condition. The muscles in her arms and legs were weak from lack of movement and she would need to do exercises to build up her strength, her reproductive organs were all fine, if a bit fatigued. Because of whatever the queen bee had done to her ovaries it would be ridiculously easy for her to get pregnant, so the doctor advised her to be cautious in the future. The honey and remnants of bee venom had been removed from her breasts, but because of the large amount of time they'd been swollen the damage was done and their size had increased; nothing dangerous, but they would be more sensitive once she recovered.

The conversation continued, the doctor didn't pull any punches or try to sugarcoat what had happened to her in anyway, and she respected that. He wrote out a list of foods she should eat to get her hormones back to normal, a list of things she should avoid, and by then the conversation wound down enough that she could ask about her savior, her curiosity too much to contain.

"Ah yes, him." The doctor hummed. At first he wasn't going to say anything, but under her persistent questioning eventually gave in.

The fire mage, Natsu Dragneel, was a member of the Fairy Tail guild of Magnolia and had been hired to rescue another woman from the giant bees. The woman her savior had been hired to rescue was taken by the bees just a week before, the doctor quietly admitted, not meeting her eyes. Her own rescue had been completely unexpected, but The Hive - Minerva - didn't care. He had saved her and that was all that mattered. That was also all the doctor would say on the matter, much to her disappointment.

* * *

She spent the next week recovering, exercising and regaining the muscle she'd lost until she could safely practice walking from one side of the room to the other.

During that week not only the doctor but her savior Natsu Dragneel visited her, chatting with her as she lifted weights or did stretches.

* * *

Her mind had been twisted by her time as The Hive, she acknowledged, because why else would she have bought the thing she did from that store?


End file.
